June 21, 2009 by Rae

Into the Tundra

This post is a bit out of order as I have two other outings to write up, but this was the most exciting. 🙂 The internet has been misbehaving (a territory-wide issue), hence why I’m behind in my posting. Believe me, a lot has been going on and I’m making the most of my nightless summer in Dawson City!

Today is the solstice, the longest day of the year. Up here, the sun sets for just a short moment; it is the night where we come as close to 24 hours of daylight as possible. True 24 hour daylight is found further north, past the Arctic Circle.

Last year, I set as a goal that I would spend this solstice on the Dempster Highway at the Arctic Circle. I didn’t think it was a realistic goal, but it motivated me to at least be north of 60 by June 21st.

Sunday is a short work day for me, 7AM to 9AM, so I decided that a day trip onto the Dempster was in order. I drove 100km up the highway to Two Moose Lake and celebrated the solstice a ‘few’ hours early (I have to get up at 6 tomorrow!) at the southern limit of the tundra, 300km shy of the Arctic Circle. Wow! 😀

My original plan for the day was to just go hiking in Tombstone Territorial Park, but my manager told me to go 30km further north to Two Moose Lake so I could see the tundra. Great advice! I drove straight to the Lake, then did my planned hike on the Grizzly Creek Trail.

The Dempster has a reputation for being a very rough road, but the 100km I drove were easy. There were perhaps two sections with really bad potholes, but, otherwise, it was very smooth going on a road that was more dirt than gravel. My average speed was 70kph, but my return was more at 80 and 90kph since I knew what to expect. If the road is like that all the way to Inuvik, I am not worried about taking Miranda on it. I was disappointed that the first 30km or so are incredibly boring and that there are far too few turnoffs once you start to hit the incredible views! Small quibbles. 🙂

I only drove one seventh of the Dempster and was already struck by the sheer isolation of the land I was driving through. I saw a homestead or two that were obviously self-sufficient, but, otherwise, there is nothing but mountains and tundra as far as the eye can see. It was land a person could disappear in.

The Milepost guide has a section about the Dempster and includes the following helpful information about Two Moose Lake:

Moose can be seen at twilight.

What about the season when there is no twilight?! 😀

Even though I wanted to keep going after the lake, I knew I had a long drive home and an even longer hike planned, so I turned around and headed back into Tombstone Park. I stopped at the campground and information centre to get the latest trail report and to find out if there had been recent bear sightings on the trail (nope).

The day had dawned very grey with heavy clouds and they let loose during the time I was the information centre. By the time I reached the Grizzly Creek trailhead, the sun was out in full force. I always have ‘luck’ with the weather the day I decide to climb a mountain. Hopefully, that streak will hold up with the Chilkoot!

The trail leads to a backcountry campground, but my goal was the observation deck, about halfway. I hadn’t done any reading on the trail, so I didn’t know what to expect and was prepared for anything. My pack had everything I needed to take care of myself if ‘anything’ happened in the bush. I set off at 2PM with an ETA back at the car of 4 or 5 based on the little information the Milepost gave me.

The trail starts off gently, meandering through thick forest and lush vegetation, following the eponymous Grizzly Creek. The going is a bit treacherous as the trail is composed almost entirely of exposed tree branches, which are very slippery. The path slowly and sneakily starts to climb until you reach a staircase. From there, the slope is obvious and it’s a hard haul to the summit, with a patch of rock scrambling. Without exaggeration, the bit leading from the stairs to the top of the rocky area could be described in the same way as the trail from Sheep Camp over of the Chilkoot Pass is described in books, only in extreme miniature.

What impressed me the most was how the trail takes you up above the treeline to fantastic views of the valley below. Standing up at the summit was very humbling; I felt very small and insignificant, but, ironically enough, very much part of the world around me.

The hike down was much harder, jarring my poor knees. I would have twisted my ankles in a couple of spots had I not been wearing proper hiking boots with high tops. But what great practise this was for my next backcountry hike!

At the trailhead, there is a box with forms for ‘voluntary self-registration.’ The purpose is to find out how many people go into the park and for what reason so that the Yukon government can best manage the land. I filled in some of the info, such as where I was going and how long I planned to be there, but did not fill out the personal information as I am growing a bit paranoid in my older age ( 🙂 ). Upon returning to the trailhead, there is a second form to complete, which asks if there were changes made to the itinerary or length of journey. One of the last questions is “Did you encounter any wildlife?” I replied “Yes, mosquitoes.” Next question was “Why do you think this encounter occurred?” To which I replied “I didn’t wear bug spray.” I’m such a smart ass. 😀

I was back at the car by 4, where I inhaled a snack of yoghurt and a granola bar before heading back home, about an hour and a half away. I am very amused by the fact that I had to stop halfway and take a short nap! I haven’t had a real solid night’s sleep in weeks and have been surviving on catnaps, which explains my exhaustion. 🙂

What a fantastic day it was! I am so thrilled that I got a ‘taste’ of the Dempster this year; it will tide me over until next year, when I will finally go to Inuvik.

shortly after leaving pavement

heading into the Tombstones

the car was fully brown by the time I got home; the mud was about a half inch thick in parts!

icy lake

Never thought I would be so close to Inuvik!

Two Moose Lake

tundra

I fell in love with this peak and want to climb it one day!

Tombstone mountains

Tombstone mountains shrouded by fog

you start off at tree level and then climb up above the treeline; very impressive!

first sign of moose; I learned to watch my step!

the first part of the trail is tricky, with tons of slippery roots underfoot waiting to trip you

there was water before the bridge, but none under it. LOL!

still among the trees

the view makes it easy to forget the climb

upwards and onwards

a mini Chilkoot preparation (exaggerating!)

climbing

still climbing

above the tree line

I love this cloud; it started off looking like a pig and morphed into a horse!

June 19, 2009 by Rae

The Dawson City Free Store

A colleague and I took a mini road trip this afternoon and went shopping at the Dawson City Free Store, a euphemism for the Dawson City… dump. 😀

Dump diving seems to be a northern sport, with the dump in Yellowknife, NWT, being the most famous. I wasn’t surprised that Dawson City has one. In a town with few stores, it makes sense that there is a reuse/recycle mentality.

People drop off usable things in a reasonably weather-proof location and can pick through what’s there. What impressed me the most was the mountain of clothes. I found five perfectly good and very pretty tops. My colleague left with a huge pile of items, including a very stylish and perfectly good winter parka. She also found a much needed table and chair and some kitchen items. With the table strapped to my roof rack, it was obvious where we’d been tonight. 😀

There are people who would turn up their noses at ‘shopping at the dump’, but I’m not one of them. I love going through flea markets, used clothing stores, and garage sales to find unique items not available in the big box stores. There is also absolutely no ‘gross factor’ in shopping at the Dawson City Free Store; the reusable items are far away from the household waste.

The free store is open noon to 7pm, Tuesday to Saturday.

June 17, 2009 by Rae

Making the Bed

With my lack of sleep lately, a conversation with Croft, and a recent post by Gypsy, I’ve had beds on my mind lately.

I think I would be a contender for the top prize in a ‘most difficult to make bed in the universe’ contest. I sleep in the bunk over the cab in my class C. I hate the thin, hard mattress that came with the rig, so I put over it my super comfy house-style mattress. This leaves me exactly 23 inches between the mattress and the ceiling. Right over my head, there is a ceiling light that reduces the clearance by about an inch and a half. I cannot count the number of times I’ve cracked my head on it. 🙂 But, otherwise, I can count on one hand the number of times that I’ve sat up in bed and hit the ceiling. It’s cozy up there, but comfortable

I still make my bed ‘normal’-style, with a fitted sheet, flat sheet, and comforters. I hate sleeping in a bag! So, once a week, I find myself spread out flat on my stomach on the bed trying to get the darn inner corners of the fitted sheets into position. Add to that a certain cat who thinks that sitting on the bed and playing with the sheets constitutes helping. 😀

Despite this self-imposed ‘hardship’ I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve slept in top bunks and lofts most of my life and much prefer that to sleeping close to the ground. Getting up into the bunk is not difficult. I do not, as my friend Croft believes, climb up and down a ladder to get into bed. Rather, I step up onto the dinette bench then onto its back. It’s really no more difficult that climbing or descending a very wide staircase. In the ten months I’ve lived in this rig, I’ve never found myself up there and thinking “Crap, I need to go back down to do x, y, or z”, getting down is such a non-issue.

Sleeping over the cab might not work for everyone, and it would probably be a pain for a couple, but for me it’s perfect. It also has a great perk.

June 14, 2009 by Rae

Good Thing I Didn’t Come For the Gold

Gold was the theme of the day.

Claim No. 6

The mosquitoes at Discovery Claim sure hit the jackpot with me today! 😀

It was the discovery of gold at this claim on Bonanza Creek that launched the Gold Rush of 1898. Today, you can park at the claim site and stroll down to the water to try your hand at panning for gold. I borrowed a pan and shovel from work and had fun spending about a half hour playing in the mud before the mosquitoes and frozen ground chased me away. I’m pretty sure I struck iron pyrite based on the number of gold-coloured flakes lying at the bottom of my pan. There is no way I am going to even think that they might have been real gold. 🙂

Dredge No. 4

Dredge No. 4 was one of several barges (set in man-made lakes) used to mine for gold from the 1930’s to the 1960’s. How they work is a bit complicated to explain without actually being on site, but I’ll try. I’d say the nearest comparison is a mechanical shovel:

The dredge works on a similar pivot-system and has a thingamabob sticking out of it like the shovel of the digger. This thingamabob gobbles up all the gravel and dirt in front of it in a wide radius and sends it into the bowels of the dredge to be processed for gold. When all the gravel and dirt has been eaten, the dredge moves ahead. It spits out its back the unusable rock forming the Klondike’s famous rock piles called ‘tailings.’ I was surprised to learn that only four men where needed to operate these behemouths. That figure is misleading, however, since a ‘dredge camp’ had more than 100 employees.

The method for mining gold in the Klondike appears to be quite different than in Val d’Or, but this might be because of the permafrost here. There seems to be a lot of tourmaline and quartz in the tailings, so I think we can assume that Klondike miners are looking for the same thing as Val d’Or miners, but have a different way of getting at it.

Dredge no. 4 sank into muck in the sixties and in the eighties the decision was made to salvage it. Work on that project did not start until the early nineties. The lower level had been stuck in silt and ice for almost thirty years by this point, but the structure still came out mostly intact! They were even able to salvage the old floors. What impressed me the most, thought, was that the mechanical parts that had been buried for so long still worked perfectly.

Parks Canada now manages the site and gives a very good hour and fifteen minute tour ending with a ten minute video presentation of the raising of the barge. Well worth a visit!

The statistic I remember best from the tour is something I haven’t been able to confirm or deny. Apparently, Dawson City was the third city in North America to get electrical power after Chicago and Montreal. If that’s the case, I am very impressed!

tools of the trade

Bonanza Creek, cold as hell, yellow as gold

at one point, I realised that my toes were turning blue, the ground and water were so cold!

Dredge No. 4 (this is a BARGE!)

thick cables!

clutches

view of the manmade lake from the winch room (highest level of the dredge we can visit)

emergency stop button (and my feet, again)

sluice boxes

these were buried in silt under ice for almost forty years and STILL WORK!

planks from 1939/1940, buried in silt and covered by ice for almost 40 years! (and, of course, my feet)

this shot really shows that the dredge is a big boat

driving home along Bonanza Creek Road

June 13, 2009 by Rae

Countdown to the Chilkoot

This time and day next month, I will be camped out at the Chilkoot trailhead in Dyea, Alaska.

I have cranked up my training and am now hiking several hours a day. My job keeps me on my feet and moving all day, so the length of my shift determines the length of my hike and how strenuous it will be. Tonight was the first time I added a proper pack, weighing in at 25lbs, half of what I was told to prepare for on the Chilkoot. I spent two hours hiking about eight kilometres, including getting halfway up to Crocus Bluff, which is some pretty darn steep terrain!

An average day on the trail will be 10.6 kilometres, with the longest and most difficult day being that of the summit climb. My goal for the next four weeks is to keep climbing the dome with a progressively heavier pack. A few days before I’m set to leave for Whitehorse, the hiking group will be going all the way to the top and I was invited to do the climb with my full Chilkoot pack. The guide as well as a gal at the visitors’ centre who have done the Chilkoot before, say that if I can get to the top of the dome with my pack I will be able to deem myself ready.

Right now, my pack is filled with nonsense–sheets, towels, a 4L jug of water, and cans of food. When I increase to 30lbs, I will start to add my proper Chilkoot gear. My goal is to leave here with full supplies and a pack weighing no more than 20lbs seeing as I will need to add a tent, sleeping pad, cooking gear, and food when I meet up with the group in July. I won’t be able to control how heavy that stuff is, so the only way I can ensure myself a pack weighing less than 50lbs is to bring as little myself. We’ll see how realistic that 20lbs goal is. I backpacked around Scotland for a month in ’98 (um, the more recent ’98, not the ’98 of the Gold Rush! 😀 ) with a pack weighing 30lbs and I was ready for all weather.

Speaking of packs, I’ve gone back and forth over which one to bring with me and have decided that although it is a bit small, I’m going to aim for the same pack I took to Scotland. It’s moulded to my body by this point, sturdy, and lightweight. It was suggested we bring packs with an internal frame so that all our gear could be packed into the bag, but I cannot get used to the weight distribution of such a pack. So, a dry run at getting the pack filled is necessary in case I have to go emergency pack shopping in Whitehorse.

Looking at our itinerary tonight, it does not send shivers down my spine the way that it did back in February, so I’d say I’m making progress!

A Life By Design

"Sometimes in life, we reach to a right place by departing from a wrong port with a wrong ship!" ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Month: June 2009

Into the Tundra

The Dawson City Free Store

Making the Bed

Good Thing I Didn’t Come For the Gold

Countdown to the Chilkoot